by Stella Noir
“I’m so glad you like it, Mrs. Anderson. You look perfect, as always.”
“Oh, Colin, if only I were twenty years younger,” she said with a wink. “Well, I’ll let you get to your next customer. This is for you,” she said as she stood and turned towards me.
“I hope you realize just how much I appreciate what you do for me,” she said as she folded up a bill and put it in my hand.
“I think I do, Mrs. Anderson. The feeling is more than mutual,” I said with a big smile. She always tipped well, in fact, most of my clients did, but it wasn’t the money I was referring to that I appreciated so much, it was the access it gave me. Where else could I work where I could touch women’s faces and hair and hands and feet like this without raising suspicion. Not to mention the walkins.
But I could see her perspective. Most of the women who came to see me were still very attractive and were willing to spend an unlimited amount of money to retain their looks. It was usually the younger girls who weren’t able to afford much.
Like the girl in the back room, I thought as I watched Mrs. Anderson walk out the door, then turn and give me a little wave.
I took a deep breath, then walked through the doorway into the back room and found the young girl sitting on one of the stylist’s chairs. Unfortunately she was still having the same affect on me and I pretended to wash my hands in the hair washing sink so I had an excuse to turn my back on her.
Those eyes. Turn around and look at those eyes ….
“So, what can I do for you, Josey?” I asked as I gave my hands an epic washing.
“Well, a friend of mine told me that if I came here and told you that Marcy had sent me, you would do my hair and make-up for real cheap. See, I have an audition tonight and I just want to look my best. I want to be an actress,” she said with a smile that I could hear even with my back turned.
But I just did one a week ago for chrissake! If I do too many of these walkins I’m going to get caught!
“Sure, I do that all the time. I usually charge ten bucks. Is that too much?”
“No, that’s perfect! I can totally do that. I just need a trim and you can style it however you think it would look best and then just natural make-up. And if you have suggestions on how you think I should do my make up that would be really cool too.”
Ok, now you have to turn around. Just do it. What are you so afraid of?
“Of course,” I said as I turned and looked at the girl in the chair and I immediately knew what was going to happen. Suddenly, I clicked over into some kind of super-human beautician persona with my mouth pouring out a bunch of bullshit on autopilot as I planned out the rest of my afternoon with the same circular thoughts that ground the steps into my head over and over.
“I can see right now that you’ll want to want to keep your eyeliner a teeny bit below your eyes to make them appear as big as possible ….”
One more appointment scheduled this afternoon … plenty of time ….
“… and stay away from any orangey colors ….”
… get her in hair washing sink first … then the hot towel … then the anesthesia from under the sink ….
“… because of your skin tone ….”
… then get the laundry bag … put body and towel in bag …
“… but there’s lots I can do and I’ll be sure and show you as I’m doing it.”
… unlock door and throw bag into tunnel … piece of cake ….
“Are you ready to get started?” I said with the biggest, fakest smile I think I’d ever had plastered on my face in my life.
I lowered the dryer down on my last appointment for the day and stepped out into the hallway that connected to the other studios. I just wanted to see how many people were left in the salon this close to closing. I really didn’t want to be held up tonight. After this last woman was out from under the dryer I was going to leave the salon right behind her.
“I doubt it. He never goes out with us for drinks after work. I don’t think he wants to associate with us.”
“What do you mean? Does he think he’s hot shit or something? Doesn’t he have a massive following of women that worship him?”
“Yeah, but who cares. It’s just a bunch of rich bored housewives. Nobody special. I would be willing to bet that they pay him to fuck them in that back room cause their husband’s are all after younger girls.”
“I think he’s gay.”
“Well, I think he’s just weird.”
Jesus Christ they’re talking about me again. Of course they are. Fucking bitches. Don’t they have anything better to do with their time?
“Maybe he has a family and would rather spend time with them?”
“I doubt it. He’s too weird to have a family.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll understand after you’ve worked here a while.”
“Jade, you’re the only one who says that about him. I don’t get it. He seems really sweet to me.”
Jade. I knew she talked about me behind my back.
“I just don’t like him, that’s all.”
“I think you’re just jealous.”
“Jealous of what? Believe me, I’m not interested.”
“Sure, Jade. He’s just about the hottest guy in this entire city.”
The laughter of multiple girls rose in the next studio over and I rounded the corner back into mine where the dryer was still going full blast. I was glad it was so noisy because I didn’t want to hear anything else those bitches had to say. It’s not like I didn’t know that they talked about me, but hearing it just made my blood boil, and now I really wished it was Jade in that bag in the tunnel. I went into the back room and rinsed my face in the sink. I was sweating and shaking again and I just wanted to get out of this damned place.
She’s not even worth it. There’s nothing even remotely redeeming about her and it would be a waste of time to even try and find any part of her to use. Just forget about Jade. What you have already is so much better.
I caught my breath as I waited for the hair dryer to stop, then I was out of there.
4. Avery
“Hey lady, how’s it going? Come on in,” Barbara said as she stepped back so I could walk through the door into her apartment.
“There you are Joey-Jo-Jo, you little cutie,” I said as I crouched down and scratched the sides of his furry little face. He jumped up and put his paws on my knees and I squealed when he started licking my face.
“Hey! Get down! Bad boy, Joey!” she said as she pushed him back down to the ground.
“Oh, that’s ok. We’ve gotten really familiar with each other over this last week. I think he may be my new best friend.”
I walked over to the couch and Joey jumped up right next to me and snuggled up to my leg when I sat down.
“Thank so much for taking care of him for me, Avery. Seriously, you saved my life. I had no idea what I was going to do with him in the evenings when I got this new job. It looks like they’re going to need my help for at least another month, so do you think you can keep walking him?” she asked as she crossed the room to a kitchenette area. Her apartment was the only one in the building that had a small kitchen in one corner of the room with an oven, sink and full size refrigerator.
“Sure, no problem! I love taking Joey out at night. I forgot to tell you, I ran into the neighbor the other night when we were out for a walk.”
“You’re ok with pizza right?”
“Of course! I’ll eat it with pretty much anything on it.”
“Cool, cause I’ve got one with everything in the oven right now. What neighbor? You mean someone on your floor?”
Barbara walked over to the oven and pulled out a pizza and the room filled with the scent of salty meats and pizza sauce. She sliced it up then brought it and some napkins over to the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Oh, wait! Drinks! What do you want? I have beer and coke and water.”
“Coke’s fine. With ice, please,” I
said as I grabbed a slice and brought it to my mouth with the assistance of a napkin. “No, the neighbor who lives in the house next door, on the right with the McNab’s Market sign out front. That totally hot guy with dark hair and insanely intense eyes. Joey and I totally spazzed out and made fools of ourselves in front of him. Didn’t we Joey?” I said as I looked down into his begging eyes. “Awww, here you go.” He just about jumped in the air as I held a mushroom out for him, then settled back down next to me, keeping his eyes glued to my pizza. “Do you know what his name is?”
“I don’t know, McNab, maybe?”
“I mean his first name!”
“Yeah, I don’t know that guy at all. He totally keeps to himself. I’ve never even see him coming or going. What did he say?”
“Nothing really. He seems kind of interesting though. I’ve seen him through his window a few times.”
“What do you mean you’ve seen him through his window? What’s he doing?”
“Nothing, really. Just looking out.”
“At what, his driveway? There’s nothing out there to look at except this house. Don’t tell me he’s looking in your window.”
“Well, how would I know what he’s looking at? I’ve just seen him a few times and then he disappears pretty quickly after that.”
“Wow, he sounds weird to me. I’d stay away from him if I were you.”
“You sound like my mother,” I said as I laughed. I didn’t want to tell Barbara that I was actually really into that guy so I played it off like it was nothing and changed the subject.
“I met a guy at school though. We’re supposed to hang out tonight. He’s gonna text me later so we can meet up for a drink or something,” I said as I shoved more pizza into my mouth.
“That’s awesome. Is he hot?”
“Yeah, he’s really cute and he seems pretty nice. We always sit next to each other and talk every day in class. Actually, that reminds me, remember the day I moved in you told me about some tunnels under the buildings and that this building has an entrance through that weird metal door in the basement?”
“Yeah,” she said with a mouthful of pizza. “I’ve never been down in the tunnels, but I’ve heard a lot about them. Why?”
“Well, in one of my classes, the required one about local history, someone asked a question about the tunnels and the professor said she didn’t know much about them and that she wasn’t even sure if the tunnels were still open or if maybe they’d caved in over the years. The professor said it’s even possible that the whole story about the tunnels is just a rumor, and then I remembered what you said about them and the door in the basement. So it’s all real?”
“Oh, they’re real, alright. All you have to do is unlock that door and you’ll see. I’ve always been too scared to go down there myself, but I have friends who have and swear up and down that the stories are real.”
“What stories? What happened down there?”
“There’s a lot of stories, like, hundreds. Apparently, at the end of the eighteen hundreds this town was a big port town for ships that brought all kinds of stuff to the west coast from all over the world. I guess a lot of these old Victorian houses were owned by wealthy people who stored food and coal and other stuff in their basements. And some of them were businesses like hot guy’s house with the grocery store next door, but I think most of them were just houses with servants and the tunnels were built to make it easier for the servants to bring supplies back to the houses and businesses.”
“It was easier to move stuff back and forth down there? That’s crazy.”
“Well, I don’t think all of the streets went all the way down to the docks, so maybe that was the only way they could get some of the stuff delivered. They started down at the docks and went on for miles through this old part of town. A lot of the docks and tunnel entrances are totally blocked off now because the sections of the tunnels that came out at the end of each street had collapsed and almost the entire area between the buildings that were above the tunnels and the water started to sink. In fact, some parts over there are just cesspools now with patches of quicksand and the buildings on the last block have mostly been abandoned.”
“Quicksand? Here in the middle of the city?”
“Yeah, it’s all blocked off now though. They built concrete walls along the sides of the buildings so that people wouldn’t climb around on the crumbling docks and fall into the nasty, murky water, but people still get over the walls and get in the buildings and hang out down there, God knows why. People also still hang out in the tunnels. Most of the entrances are locked or bricked over, but they find a way to get in, because I’ve heard that homeless people sometimes sleep down there to get out of the rain. But, as far as I’m concerned they’d have to be pretty damned desperate to sleep in those tunnels, with so many people disappearing in this area over the years.”
“People disappeared in the tunnels?”
“Tons. Well, that’s where people assume they disappeared to. The rumor is that in this part of town, over the last one hundred and fifty years or so, a whole lot of people have disappeared. And I guess why most people say that it’s an urban legend is because a lot of them were prostitutes or homeless that nobody really missed so there’s no way to prove that they disappeared. And, really, I guess there’s no way for me to prove any of it since I’ve heard about all of it second or third or fourth hand, like an urban legend, but I personally think it’s real.”
“But don’t people always think urban legends are real?”
“Yeah I guess, but I grew up here and I have friends whose families lived in this neighborhood for decades and they believe it. Some of them even know people who disappeared.”
“But I thought you said that it was prostitutes and homeless people that disappeared.”
“Well, a lot of them were, especially in the first half of the last century. But in the 70s and 80s a lot of young girls that were going to college here disappeared. And some of them lived in this very apartment building.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and there are friends of mine who’s parents lived in this neighborhood when they were kids and they said that there were curfews almost every summer. And there was always a new story in the news about a college girl that had disappeared. I also have a friend who totally became obsessed with the tunnels after a childhood friend of his disappeared from this very street. He’s researched them and gone down in them a whole bunch and he told me, from what he read, that the disappearances slowed down in the 90s, but every once in a while there’s a story in the news about a young girl that’s missing.”
“And none of the cases have been solved?”
“Well, I guess nowadays they figure they’re runaways or something and runaway cases aren’t very high priority. A lot of the bodies haven’t been found, so there’s nowhere to start looking.”
“Why all young girls?”
“Well, isn’t it always young girls?”
“Yeah, it seems like it. Doesn’t creep you out to live here?”
“Sometimes, but as long as I don’t go down in the basement by myself I’m fine. I usually do my laundry around the corner anyway because I can just throw everything in my car and take it over there. But I don’t really even like having the key to that door. And I told the landlord that I wouldn’t deal with the recycling if he put it down there so he comes once a month to take care of it.”
“You have a key to that door?” I said as I sat up straight. The idea of going down there by myself totally freaked me out, but checking out those tunnels with Barbara sounded awesome.
“Don’t look at me that way, Avery. There is no way I’m going in those tunnels. And there’s no way I’m even unlocking the big freaky lock on that door.”
“Seriously? You’re not even remotely curious about what’s behind that door? You’ve never even been in there. Not once.”
“No way! There is no way you’re getting me down there.”
“I wasn’t trying to get yo
u to do anything, I just thought it might be fun if we went together. It would be like an adventure.”
“An adventure? You’ve got to be kidding me. It would be scary as hell.”
“Well yeah, I mean, it does sound a little creepy, but it also sounds really cool. Plus, the main project in that class I have is to write a paper on some historical part of the city and I think the tunnels would be freaking amazing to do it on. I could research it and see if there’s any more information online but having first-hand knowledge and pictures of what it’s like down there would be so cool. And we’d be together. You and me. Best buds. On an adventure in the tunnels.”
I could see by the look on her face that she might budge if I brought out some bribe ammo. The more I talked about it the more excited I got and I really just wanted to go down there and check it out and she was the only person I knew who could take me down there.
“Ok, I will walk Joey every night for the rest of the year if you will take me down there.”
Barbara still didn’t say anything but started to shake her head like she was about to say no so before she could I continued.
“And I’ll take you out to dinner! Wherever you want to go. And drinks afterward. And anything else you want, it will be your night!”
“Ok! Ok!” Barbara said as she flopped her head against the back of her chair. “I’ll do it! I’ll go down there with you!”
“Honestly, I can’t understand how you could not want to go down there. It’s sounds so interesting and mysterious and the tunnels have such an amazing history.”
“Yeah, an amazingly freaky history. I just don’t like dark places like that is all. I don’t even like watching horror movies. But, ok, if you really want to go down there we can do it this weekend. During the day and with a whole bunch of flashlights and I’m taking my pepper spray.”
“But what difference will it make whether it’s day or night if it’s underground? I mean, it’s gonna be dark down there no matter what.”
“Dude. The bad things that happen, they happen at night. You know, the witching hour and all that.”
“Yeah, but if we’re together we’ll be ok. Let’s just go down there open the door and look.”